Doom_et_Al's and Dear Hollow's Top Ten(ish) of 2023

Doom_et_Al

Of going broke, Hemingway famously wrote that it happened gradually, then suddenly. Fortunately, in 2023, I didn’t go broke, but things happened suddenly. After years of nothing much happening, I suddenly got engaged to a very beautiful woman, bought a house, had a kid, and took on a new role at work. While this was all very exciting, it meant that I had less time than I would’ve liked for reviewing duties at the august institution of AMG.

Sadly, while I personally had a good year, the world we live in did not. Wars raged, innocents died, the weather continued to change, politicians lied, hatred and bigotry against vulnerable people rose. It’s not surprising that against this backdrop, death metal, with its fury and rage against human stupidity and weakness, emerged from its nap to have its best year in ages. Seriously, there was so much great death metal, it was hard to keep track. Even I, a doom and black metal fan at heart, was completely swept up, culminating in a plea to review a legendary death metal band. That plea was knee-capped with extreme prejudice by management, but it’s the thought that counts.

Did I mention I had a kid? His name is Grayskull and although only a few weeks old, the other day he looked me in the eye and said he loved Deafheaven, thought Sunbather was iconic, and couldn’t understand the fuss around Saturnus. I couldn’t be more proud. He will be reading the AMG style guide as soon as he can hold his head up.

A special thanks to our overlord, AMG himself, who makes himself poorer to keep the site free and available for all. Without him, none of the malarkey that occurs here on a daily basis would happen. Gratitude to the head boss, and king ape, Steel Druhm, who somehow manages to keep this ragtag bunch together, without resorting to too much physical wiolence. He may wield a big hammer but he’s a softie at heart and puts in enormous work behind the scenes. The other editors (Holdy, Grier, Dolphin), who have appalling taste, but are actually good people. Mostly. My fellow writers who write about music so beautifully, and who actually care about each other. It’s an honor working with you. I’ve often said that if the world functioned more like AMG, it would be a better place. But then I get called a commie bastard. Such is life.

I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2024. It’s no accident that AMG is the best metal spot on the interwebz, and that’s because the community is engaged, supportive and kind. Let’s keep this up.

And now, without further ado, the list.

#ish. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory – I have always loved and been frustrated by Panopticon in equal measure. He writes some of the most unique and interesting black metal, but seems completely incapable of self-editing. The Rime of Memory presents a unique challenge: it’s the best and worst of Panopticon dialled to 11. The good stuff is the best of his career, but it’s a very long listen. It’s brilliant stuff, but more time is needed to see just how brilliant.

#10. Night Crowned // Tales – Unexpectedly good black metal from a band I had never heard of. A perfect melding of melodicism and aggression, it’s mostly just a whole lot of fun. Crisp production, manageable length, excellent pacing, committed performances… Honestly, this one has the lot. This gem is not appearing on any other sites’ end of year lists blogs, which is proof, if ever you needed it, that AMG is the only blog you need.

#9. Blackbraid // Blackbraid II – Tremendously talented performer follows up extremely promising debut with very satisfying sophomore effort. It’s a pity that controversy swirled around creator Sgah’gahsowáh’s authenticity and heritage because this distracted us from a fiery, catchy, but above all, unique, album. That it manages to stake original ground without compromising the core tenets of black metal is even more miraculous. If you can look beneath the swirl, this is a fantastic album that stayed in rotation all year round.

#8. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – Massive yet intimate. Dense yet penetrable. Funeral doom yet of manageable length. If these seem paradoxical, welcome to the No Dawn for the Caliginous Night. Funeral doom will never be everyone’s cup of tea, but when it’s this good, it becomes very difficult to ignore. Building on the the previous two efforts, this takes all the good stuff, adds elements you didn’t think you needed (choirs, violins), and gives us the funeral doom album of the year.

#7. Sulphur Aeon // Seven Crowns and Seven Seals – I’ve been on the Sulphur Aeon train since Gateway to the Antisphere. Such unique, epic death metal is impossible to ignore. I was excited as everyone else by the arrival of Seven Crowns. Unlike many others, I didn’t find the slight tweak in the sound to be disappointing in the slightest. On the contrary, I found the slightly lighter tone and melodic atmosphere allowed the material to soar to interesting new areas. This band is now 4 for 4 and Seven Crowns is one of the few albums truly underrated on the site this year.

#6. Aetherian // At Storm’s Edge – Imma be honest with you: I was disappointed at much of the melodeath output this year. Yes, there was some quality stuff (see Shylmagoghnar, Astralborne), but for the most part, it watched quietly as brutal death kicked its teeth in. One of the few exceptions was Aetherian’s second album, At Storm’s Edge. Here you had melodic riffs, fist-pumping melodies, and 7 mini-epics, each satisfying in its own way. Try not to feel the blood charging during “Armies of Gaia,” for example.

#5. Krigsgrav // Fires in the Fall – A perfect blend of atmospheric black, death metal, and doom metal, this is 2023’s hot album. The one that evokes fire and fury, not icy malevolence. Krisgrav have been doing their thing for nearly 2 decades over 7 albums. What makes Fires in the Fall stand out is the addition of doom, which lends weight and solemnity to the tracks. It’s one of those albums no one expected, and yet those who listened couldn’t shut up about. Sometimes, seventh time’s the charm.

#4. Mānbryne // Interregnum: O próbie wiary i jarzmie zwątpienia – One of underground metal’s best black bands follows up a scorching debut with a sophomore that perhaps lacks its predecessor’s incredible highs, but is more solid throughout. Mānbryne manage to walk the line between zany, aggressive and melodic, giving us that uniquely central European flavor that no one else can quite mimic. It also possesses, bar none, the vocal performance of the year.

#3. Afterbirth // In But Not Of – Following up Four Dimensional Flesh was never going to be easy, but Afterbirth have somehow made an even better album. While the first half of brutal, spacy, wacky death metal is great, the second half, with its explorations into post-metal and prog is where real greatness happens. How a band combines the caveman gurgly antics with progressive metal sensibilities to make slam that sounds, ya know, smart, is something I will never wrap my head around. But Afterbirth have, and we should all be grateful.

#2. Wayfarer // American Gothic – For a while there, around the release of 2018’s World’s Blood, it looked like Wayfarer had lost their… way. Predictable, overly long, mid-paced black metal wasn’t exciting anyone. Then came A Romance with Violence, and Wayfarer rediscovered their groove, doubling down on the themes of the American Wild and black metal. American Gothic is the final distillation of their sound, and what a distillation it is, introducing mournful melodies as a counterpoint to A Romance with Violence’s fury. It works a treat, and remains one of 2023’s most original releases. If you’re wondering why so few bands try to combine the Wild West with metal, it’s because it’s hard. Wayfarer have cracked the formula. The result is essential.

#1. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I knew this was going to be my number one the first time I listened to it. Impactful, sincere, melodic death-doom is my JAM. This is everything I wanted Ocean of Grief’s Pale Existence to be (and wasn’t). Yes, it isn’t particularly original, but I don’t care. Art is about the connection it forges with the person engaging with it, and from the opening crunch of “Harbingers” to the closing strains of “Idiopathic Despair,” I feel every note of Air Not Meant for Us in my marrow. There’s a longing and a beauty here that I connected with immediately. The jump between this and Echoes from Deep November is astonishing. True soul food. There was nothing as good in 2024.

Honorable Mentions:

Cattle Decapitation // Terrasite – A return to form after the disappointing Death Atlas, Terrasite gives us progressive slam/grind/death metal that is massive, gross and compelling
Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – Came this close to making the top 10. Terrible name, superb music, there is a majesty here which is transportive.
Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Prog so good, it turns the heads of even those who don’t like prog (like me). Incredible songs, great performances. Only slightly uneven pacing held it back.
Shylmagoghnar // Convergence – If all one-man black metal was as good as this, the genre wouldn’t have such a terrible rep. Expert long-form songs packed with melodies, emotion and intelligence.
Disguised Malignance // Entering the Gateways – We all need that album that just beats us down mercilessly from time to time. For me, that was Entering the Gateways. With just enough progressiveness to balance its caveman tendencies, this kicked me the shins then punched me in the face. I loved it.

Disappointment o’ the year:

Ocean of Grief // Pale Existence – My most anticipated album of the year, given that 2018’s Nightfall’s Lament was my album of the year back then. Everything here was very pretty, and easy-going and… a bit dull.

Overhyped by the Staff but Actually a Disappointment:

Saturnus // The Storm Within – Rather pretty doom ruined by hideous spoken words, maudlin lyrics, and overwrought compositions. The staff seemed to love this one, but it gave me indigestion and I struggled to finish every time. “The Calling” is magnificent. The rest… meh.

Songs o’ the Year

“Wisdom of Falling Leaves” – Fires in the Distance
“The Calling” – Saturnus
“Armies of Gaia” – Aetherian
“Golden” – Sermon
“In But Not Of” – Afterbirth
“Po trupach ku niebu” – Mānbryne

Dear Hollow

Welcome to the end of 2023. We at AMG hope the year has been kind to you – that your lives are filled with love, your hearts with joy, and our world with peace. As always, I hope you have found your people and your community, and if us overrating bastards and unproductive self-flagellants have given you just a little bit of camaraderie, then we’ve done what we’ve set out to do.

2023 has been a wild year for the House of Hollow. A very opinionated toddler dominates our days with all the criticism and hugs we can muster, and parenting remains one of the most rewarding challenges we have ever faced. Our daughter started Montessori, blissfully free of an awful situation that caused a stubborn streak of grey in my hair last March through May. We made unforgettable trips across the country, all the while wrapped up with a continuing Sisyphean slog towards my Masters in Secondary Education. Not even to mention a mental health journey – a continually brutal and beautiful work in progress.

We in education still feel the effects of the pandemic. Students are more disparate from each other even in their classrooms, and educators must put in the work to connect with them more and more. As an alternative high school, we are faced with disappointment regularly, and we see how much of a disadvantage students have when they fail to break out of the family shit or make choices that dig their holes a little deeper. But touching the lives of one student can mean the world, a joy I experience daily. It’s less about inspiring academics and more about letting our halls be a safe place to those who need it: everything else comes after. We strive for more but maybe the bare minimum is just enough.

In metal terms, I have held my nose to the grindstone, cranking out more reviews than ever before at 75 unsolicited overrated and underrated opinions, complete with my share of controversy and infamy, as well as several 4.0s that have not stood the test of time. While I’m sure my productivity is a coping mechanism for not having to deal with stress and life deconstruction, it is a rewarding one with an incredible group and amazing audience – brought together by the love of metal. Special shout-outs to the ineffable Steel Druhm for attempting to wrangle our rowdy asses, Thus Spoke and Maddog for the great conversation and friendship, and Holdeneye, Kenstrosity, Cherd of Doom, and Grymm for the undying positivity. Oh, and Dolphin Whisperer for all the arguments over clashing music taste and different genre definitions – love you, bro.

Before I get too sappy, let’s get on to metal!

#ish. Serpent of Old // Ensemble Under the Dark Sun – Turkish export Serpent of Old’s take on the sinister and obscure is what Desolate Shrine’s should have been last year in its undeniably blackened and atmospheric gravitas, but with a distinctive colossal quality that feels unmatched by many a 2023 death metal album. Its first act of “The Sin Before the Great Sin” to “The Fall” feature the best pilgrimage of pain this year alone. Featuring a sunless and gnarled sound in which Serpent of Old draws from the crooked sermons of dissonant death metal and the left-hand path of blackened death, Ensemble Under the Dark Sun is as devastating as it is evocative.

#10. Victory Over the Sun // Dance You Monster to My Soft Song! – Featuring the explorative mood that comprises the microtonal black metal style, Portland-based Vivian Tylińska’s Victory Over the Sun balances majesty and crookedness alike in five tracks of searing motifs and patient unfolding. From the expansive “Thorn Woos the Wound” to the maddening riff of “WHEEL,” to the lurching jaggedness of closer “Black Heralds,” Dance You Monster to My Soft Song! will challenge your ideas of movement and black metal while sweeping your mind into the ether. Victory Over the Sun’s sophomore effort is haunting, jagged, beautiful, and lush, seemingly all at once, to get those feet a-movin’.

#9. Altari // Kröflueldar – Every bit as molten, scorched, and barren in dissonance and misanthropy, as Icelandic black metal should be, Altari channels the trademark obsidian of Svartidauði or Wormlust through the filter of psychedelic rock a la Killing Joke or Cocteau Twins, creating a fuzzed-out and uniquely rotten sound. Featuring a crescendo of dissonance and opaqueness that swells like a gathering storm throughout the album’s thirty-six minute runtime, it’s a slow-burn in every sense of the phrase, conjuring the pyroclastic flow and volcanic weight. Kröflueldar takes its time in its unraveling, but when it settles, Altari rots from the inside out and is impossible to shake.

#8. Johnny Booth // Moments Elsewhere – NYC five-piece Johnny Booth attacks with a metalcore essence, but fuses it with a vicious and unhinged quality oft abused in mathcore or chaotic hardcore. Balanced by a nice electronic presence that injects a necessary placidity, Johnny Booth comes crashing through like a freight train nonetheless, while the cleaner passages feel more like raised fists in the beatdown rather than brakes on the momentum. While a molten metalcore hull steadies the ship, influences of mathcore, hardcore punk, and electronic swarm it with a maelstrom of ear abuse.

#7. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – Finnish duo Convocation, wrought from formidable ribs of Desolate Shrine and Dark Buddha Rising, offers their most impressive album yet. No Dawn for the Caliginous Night channesl mammoth death-doom and despondent funeral doom to accomplish a weight both viciously devastating and patiently atmospheric. Synth never overwhelms but rather adds an otherworldly aura to the proceedings, gracing tracks with placidity while dragging others to the depths. But most notably, in the words of the inimitable Kenstrosity, this boy be “beeg.”

#6. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Like 2021’s excellent A Romance with Violence, Denver’s Wayfarer utilizes a strong base of atmospheric black metal and tinges it with Americana. While its predecessor felt like a caricature of the Wild West, American Gothic feels worn as old leather, dusty as windswept plains, and desolate as old Sonora, with the smell of gun smoke lingering. It feels lived in, beaten down by violence and the promise of progress. Featuring sermonically fiery vocals, furious black metal riffs and powerful percussion, and appearances of twangy guitar, Wayfarer finds itself continuously separating from the American blackened cattle drive.

#5. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter // Saved! – While I awarded this one a measly 3.5 at its release, assuming that its overtly religious tones and old-timey spirituality would only cater to a specific audience, no other album of 2023 has clung to me, infected me, and haunted me the way that Saved! has. A mixture of classic church songs and originals that represent the anxiety that pervaded Hayter’s Pentecostal upbringing, it is more stripped down and bare bones than anything of her Lingua Ignota repertoire. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter’s stark take on gospel, noise, and avant-garde is the soundtrack of irony and sincerity – a burned-out house of a woman wasted by zeal and flagellation.

#4. Big|Brave // Nature Morte – The Montreal trio’s latest is a tour-de-force of its trademark dichotomy between its colossal and human qualities, sharpened and blunted in ways that challenge the bleakness of its predecessor. Informed by their collaboration with The Body Leaving None But Small Birds, a whimpering folk voice now echoes through the pines of Big|Brave’s trademark mountains of sound. Refusing to follow the path well-trodden by Earth and its apostles, the fluid and organic tones less create a soundtrack for lustrous devastation or create fictitious worlds but they force the listener to dwell in the darkened shrines of the self. Nature Morte is a landmark – a stone monument of unknown origin in the darkest woods.

#3. Nightmarer // Deformity Adrift – Featuring the work of veterans both punishing and accessible, Deformity Adrift attacks its unfriendly source material with a riff-forward, weighty punch balanced out by a tastefully sparse industrial ambiance that adds gravitas to the proceedings. Offering just enough experimental or atmospheric touches to add to the absolute face-caving weight, while saturating negative spaces with dissonant plucking that constructs walls of darkness with its claustrophobic feel, Deformity Adrift’s tasteful brevity and vicious guitar tone balance with Nightmarer’s propensity for otherworldly darkness.

#2. Rorcal // Silence – The Swiss collective’s catalog is nothing short of spectacular, but Rorcal’s punishment historically has a theme. While sonically similar to last outing Muladona, Silence forgoes its heavyhanded storytelling for blackened and noise tendencies with dense and abyssal weighted riffs that punch through the canvas to a nearly unbearable degree. Rorcal’s ability to blend the haunting tones, unhinged violence, and megaton weight – while maintaining its unique voice – is nothing short of spectacular. It’s easy to get lost in the throes of devastation, an empty scream off the walls of the abyss – and its stubborn refusal to answer.

#1. Saturnus // The Storm Within – I’ve longed for an album that sat with me the way Saturnus’s 2006 sophomore outing Veronika Decides to Die did. The Storm Within is dramatic, with ham-fisted spoken word and an emphasis on melody infecting its density, but for the first album in eleven years, there are no other albums that accomplish the patience. Gentle plucking guitars, somber moods, and gentle crescendos have the most satisfying payoffs, with the melancholy manifesting in colossal riffs and powerful use of motifs, emphasized by devastatingly low growls. The opening three tracks comprise the best one-two punch of the year, while the back half of the album feels like an unraveling and stripping down. The Storm Within is a magnificently monolithic and aptly dreary return to form from Saturnus, cementing themselves at the forefront of their scene with the best album of the year.

Honorable Mentions:

Vertebra Atlantis // A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime – Colossal, magnificent, and mysterious, the Italians hone their fusion of dissonant death and atmospheric black for a sound all their own, icy and vicious in equal measure.
Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – Doom’s okay, but I’m in it for the 80’s electronic post-punk and goth rock influences – a nasty guitar tone aligns perfectly with the punkish sneer for an ethereal and thickly heavy trek through the morbid.
Sylosis // A Sign of Things to Come – The no-frills blend of metalcore, thrash, and melodeath tones for a repeated sonic concussion for which you’ll keep dragging your mangled body back again and again.
To the Grave // Director’s Cuts – Unhinged technical deathcore, Director’s Cuts drags the blade sure and deep into human greed with animalistic urgency.
Zach Bryan // Zach Bryan – Singer-songwriter acoustic meets country and roots rock in a superbly written and lyrically haunting self-defining album that cements the “Oklahoman Son” as the act to watch going forward.
There Will Be Fireworks // Summer Moon – The long-awaited return of the Scottish post-rockers (ten years, lads) features a far more streamlined and less atmospheric affair, but the Frightened Rabbit-meets-Explosions in the Sky-meets-American Football thing continues to work for them in their old age.

Disappointments o’ the Year:

Omega Infinity // The Anticurrent – Bad use of “juxtaposition,” because icy ambient black metal and suddenly symphonic tones do not jive, fellas.
Austere // The Corrosion of Hearts – Sure, it’s DSBM, but the Aussies’ denial of their trademark sun-scorched version for something like blackened milquetoast is a disappointment fourteen years in the making.
Orbit Culture // Descent – Damn good thrashy melodeath shot in the foot by awful production and mixing.
Signs of the Swarm // Amongst the Low & Empty – The controversy-laden deathcore-mongers follow up their best album with a sound that’s bad because of the sound rather than the makers.
Läjä Äijälä & Albert Witchfinder // Ordeal & Triumph – Oh my god.
Megaton Leviathan // Magick Helmet – Also a bad use of “juxtaposition,” because boredom and tinnitus is no good for the soul.

Surprises o’ the Year:

Unguilty // Gray – I’ve never had a 2.5-quality album affect me the way this beast has.
Onkos // Vascular Labyrinth – Dissonant death jazz? This is great.
Dratna // Fomóraigh – Folky raw black metal with a penchant for riffs.
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